


in the bright light (i taste you on my tongue)

by viceandvirtue



Series: vityaweek2018 [2]
Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Mermaids, Eros Katsuki Yuuri, M/M, Mermaid Katsuki Yuuri, Mermaids - Pirates of the Caribbean Style, Not Really Character Death, apparently I am just incapable of writing anything happy if it involves mermaids, vityaweek2018, we all know how that ends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-24
Updated: 2018-12-24
Packaged: 2019-09-27 20:35:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,290
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17168951
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/viceandvirtue/pseuds/viceandvirtue
Summary: Mermaids, the sailors whispered. Lovely as a dream of heaven.Lovely as a dream of heaven, yes. But Viktor thinks this creature is lovelier than even heaven.





	in the bright light (i taste you on my tongue)

The ice rink is cold, he thinks distantly. He’s been thinking it’s cold since he first started skating. Technically, he’s not supposed to be here today – nobody is, as Yakov gave everybody the day off – but Viktor’s been breaking into the ice rink since he was fourteen and figured out the door to the back could be pried open because it didn’t lock properly if one didn’t catch the latch just right.

Yakov would kill him if he knew.

But he _needs_ this. He needs to feel the ice under his skates and the rush of air that goes flying by him when he makes a perfectly executed jump or a difficult spin without traveling.

He puts his headphones in as he takes to the ice and picks one of the more haunting songs from his playlist. It takes a moment for the music to begin and he relaxes his shoulders, bowing his head, and then he’s off once the gong sounds in his ears.

And it’s a love story for the ages that’s being told.

_Viktor’s sitting on a longboat, oars sitting still in the outriggers, the lighthouse above him casting shadow to the midnight water, turning it a false gold. He hadn’t come out to fish, just to watch the stars. Yuri would kill him if he knew. But as it is, his young cousin doesn’t know, still fast asleep in his bed._

He lets his feet move of their own accord, not trying to put in something that doesn’t feel natural to the music. He lets the music move him, not the other way around – it’s something he can never do unless he’s alone.

_He switches between singing and humming and idle sailor’s tune under his breath and watches the water ripple from the small fish dancing around each other playfully. And then the water goes still. He hardly notices, his eyes pointed to the stars._

A quadruple flip at the crescendo, when the drums come in. He’s airborne for a dizzying moment of stillness, the rink flashing by him. He lands and then it’s a step sequence for every soft repetitive beat in his ears. A spin now.

_His eyes are drawn back to the water. Another ripple a flash of silver, a dark gleam of onyx before it fades into the water. Viktor resolves to out it out of his mind till he hears water falling, and sudden weight, tilting his boat. He swings his attention to starboard and there – at the stern – was a young man. And suddenly Viktor’s remembering the rumors surrounding the Bay of Godric._

Viktor feels the air rush by him as he spins, feels the ice give under his toe picks as he prepares for another jump. The rinks walls flash by him, but he’s hardly paying attention to where he is on the rink now, lost in the music. As the choir raises its voices – a steady, haunting crescendo – he feels himself go airborne as the drums are stuck, once, twice, a third, a _fourth_. And it’s harder than he’s ever pushed himself, his chest heaving and sweat pouring down his neck but this is exhilarating.

_Mermaids, the sailors whispered. Lovely as a dream of heaven. But then they’ll snatch a sailor out of a boat or off the deck of the ship, have their way, then the sailors are pulled to the bottom, and drowned, and eaten._

_Lovely as a dream of heaven, yes. But Viktor thinks this creature is lovelier than even heaven._

_Black hair as dark as the night sky and eyes deeper and darker than any tidal pool. Dark like the color of chocolate when first ground maybe but even that seems a paltry comparison. His skin is not as fair as Viktor’s but not as dark as the lifelong merchant sailors. It’s warm like honey. Viktor is tempted to say gold but not even gold obtains a color that rich._

_“Oh,” he says softly, and the mermaid feints back a bit and then –_

_Viktor can see muscle rippling as the mermaid pulls himself out of the water. Exactly where his body meets the surface, he transforms, from scales and fins to skin. The mermaid stares at Viktor innocently, his black and silver tail swishes back and forth beneath the water._

_“Do you talk?” Viktor asks as he inches toward the stern, leaning forward in his curiosity._

_“Yes,” the beautiful creature answers back shyly._

_“You’re beautiful.” He can’t stop himself from saying it, especially because it’s true._

_That doesn’t get a direct response, aside from the mermaid flushing prettily. “Are you the one who sings?”_

_“I am,” Viktor says, swallowing nervously._

_The mermaid smiles, radiant, utterly compelling. “You’re very lovely,” the other responds, sending him a glance from under thick lashes, his finger fidgeting on the wood of the longboat._

Viktor stops suddenly as his torso comes forward in line with his hips. He pauses, waits as the music quiets, trying to regain his breath. And then it’s a harried whirl of motion as the music picks up, frantic and desperate and Viktor can feel that same emotion – that adrenaline – in his bones and it seeps into every action.

And the story continues.

_The mermaid moves closer, pulling more of his torso out of the water and Viktor cannot help but stare. Viktor is muscled for a military man, but he cannot come close to this creature born of the sea and the tide._

_Viktor almost feels his jaw drop when the mermaid begins repeating the song back to him, voice haunting and eerie in the mists of midnight. Viktor leans closer, entranced, watching lips form around the words, the accent that changes them into something melodic. The mermaid lets him, that same enchanting grin still in place and those dark eyes firmly on Viktor’s pale blues._

_“Please,” Viktor gasps as the last syllable leaves the mermaid’s lips._

_The man before him chuckles, a sound even sweeter than music. “What are you asking for?”_

_“Anything, anything you’re willing to give,” Viktor pleads. “Just please.”_

The music goes soft again and Viktor’s spin is almost whisper quiet across the ice as he finishes, his step sequences coming slow and sleek now instead of the sharp, short things they had been. He can feel the ice beneath his blades now, how his lungs expand against the cage of his ribs as if to break free. Viktor has never felt more liberated on the ice before in his life.

_“I think I can think of something,” the mermaid whispers, lips almost brushing Viktor’s and Viktor can’t help but whimper. And then the mermaid’s lips are on his and Viktor imagines this must be what the ladies in town talk about when they talk of kissing their true love. His every nerve ending is on fire and yet his mind is clear, and he finally feels whole, like a piece of his soul has been returned when he hadn’t even known it to be missing._

_His face meets the water, but he doesn’t even realize it until he sees the silver scales that come into being on the mermaid’s face and arms, like the smallest of crystals._

_He doesn’t resist as he’s submerged in the water, pulled from his boat, still entwined with this beautiful creature and they gradually spiral downward amid a trail of bubbles that climb upward –_

_And then the light is no more, and the pair is gone._

Viktor stops as the music fades out, sliding to his knees gently, minding the blade on his skates, his head bowed.

_The longboat drifts out of the reach of the lighthouse, empty, oars still unmoved from the outriggers._

And the story – a tragedy to be sure – is finished.


End file.
